During Watergate, people resigned because “mistakes were made.”
In later years, the big cheese resigned to “spend more time with his family.”
After that, people resigned with apologies for “not living up to my own high standards.”
Now? They still resign not because they shit the bed. But now it’s because they’ve “become a distraction.” To wit, from our Executive Communication Report yesterday (a newsletter you should subscribe to immediately because it’s useful and free and now you can find at a great website of the same name):
Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky resigned from the crypto firm yesterday, according to CNBC. “I regret that my continued role as CEO has become an increasing distraction …” he wrote in his resignation letter, referring to the company’s Chapter 11 filing several months ago.
This one is particularly clever in that it subtly but clearly implies the main problem isn’t the leader’s mistakes or misdeeds, but rather the nattering nabobs who are talking about the situation, and the suckers who listening to them.
And it positions the leader as a hero for sacrificing himself—and I say “himself” because I don’t think I’ve actually seen a woman who quite had the casual rhetorical gall required for this gambit—for the good of everyone involved.
As my old man used to say, when you’re getting run out of town, get out in front, and make it look like a parade.
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